Among the Mermaids Read online

  A

  MONG

  THE

  M

  ERMAIDS

  A

  MONG

  THE

  M

  ERMAIDS

  Facts, Myths, and Enchantments

  from the Sirens of the Sea

  First published in 2013 by Weiser Books

  Red Wheel/Weiser,

  LLC

  With offices at:

  665 Third Street, Suite 400

  San Francisco, CA 94107

  www.redwheelweiser.com

  Copyright © 2013 by Weiser Books

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any

  form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or

  by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red

  Wheel/Weiser,

  LLC

  . Reviewers may quote brief passages.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Ventura, Varla, 1958–

  Among the mermaids : facts, myths, and enchantments from the sirens of the sea /

  Varla Ventura.

  pages cm

  Includes bibliographical references.

  ISBN 978-1-57863-545-0

  1. Mermaids. I. Title.

  GR910.V46 2013

  398.21—dc23

  2013006176

  Cover design by

  www.levanfisherdesign.com

  / Barbara Fisher

  Interior by Dutton & Sherman

  Typeset in Adobe Jenson Pro text and Incognito display

  Printed in the United States of America

  MAL

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American

  National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library

  Dedicated to Sarah Elizabeth Kahn, who

  dove into murky and frightening waters and

  emerged, smiling, with a shimmering pearl.

  Who would be

  A mermaid fair,

  Singing alone,

  Combing her hair

  Under the sea,

  In a golden curl

  With a comb of pearl,

  On a throne?

  —LORD ALFRED TENNYSON,

  “THE MERMAID”

  CONTENTS

  Introduction: A Maid Upon the Waves

  xiii

  1.

  THE EMERALD SEA

  1

  “The Mermaid”

  by George A. Birmingham

  2

  Nautical Terms

  22

  Batten Down the Hatches!

  25

  2.

  MY HUSBAND WILL EAT MY CHILDREN

  29

  “Lutey and the Mermaid”

  by Mabel Quiller-Couch

  30

  Lady of the Lake

  47

  Mermaid Legends

  51

  3.

  IT MOANS ON LAND AND SEA

  55

  “Flory Cantillon’s Funeral”

  by T. Crofton Croker

  56

  The Practicalities of Piracy

  63

  No Swimming

  64

  4.

  SEAL WITH A KISS

  65

  “The Selkies”

  by Elizabeth Pepper and Barbara Stacy

  65

  Amongst the Selkies

  67

  “Amongst the Mermaids”

  by Norman Roe

  68

  “The Selkie That Deud No’ Forget”

  by Norman Roe

  76

  The Mermaid of San Francisco Bay

  87

  “The Mermaid of Lighthouse Point”

  by Bret Harte

  88

  5.

  MERMAIDS: FIRSTHAND ACCOUNTS AND

  LIVING, BREATHING (UNDERWATER)

  MERMAIDS!

  91

  The Mer-Life of Hannah Fraser

  91

  Underwater Visionaries

  94

  Haenyeo: Free Diving Mermaids

  94

  Dreamtime Mermaids

  95

  Mermaid Mizuko

  100

  Fishermen Tales

  109

  Puts Nessie to Shame

  110

  6.

  ALL ABOARD!

  111

  “The Mermaid of Zennor”

  by Lyonnese

  112

  Then Little Mermaids

  115

  The Ghost Ship

  120

  Strange and Sumptuous Seaweed

  124

  7.

  MERMAID JOY RIDE

  129

  “The Mermaid of Druid Lake”

  by Charles Weathers Bump

  132

  Sorry Kids! The United States Government Officially

  Denies Mermaids Exist

  149

  “The Mermaid’s Prophecy”

  by Anonymous

  151

  8.

  COOMARA’S CALLING

  157

  Lobster Pots

  158

  “The Soul Cages”

  by T. Crofton Croker

  159

  “The Merrow”

  by W.B. Yeats

  183

  9.

  AUNT JUDY’S AQUARIUM

  185

  “Among the Merrows: A Sketch of a Great

  Aquarium”

  by Juliana Horatia Ewing

  187

  THE TAIL END OF THIS BOOK

  219

  Mermaid Movie Madness

  219

  Shopping

  224

  Recommended Reading

  226

  Bibliography and Online Resources

  233

  Acknowledgments

  237

  xiii

  INTRODUCTION:

  A MAID UPON THE WAVES

  What would life be like as a mermaid? How would it feel to

  dash from kelp bed to sandy shore, surrounded by the lus-

  cious enchantments of the briny deep? If you were a tropi-

  cal mermaid, you’d no doubt have a personality as colorful

  as your coral reef playground. Surely you’d be cheerful and

  you’d sing songs with a decidedly calypso beat, luring the

  passing sailors and foolish tourists into your playground just

  to have them to the underwater party you would always be

  hosting.

  If you were a mermaiden of chillier waters—perhaps liv-

  ing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean or in the brash Irish

  Sea—maybe your personality would be more biting. You

  would be more inclined to spitefulness, and would capture

  out of boredom. You’d wait among the sloshing seaweed,

  Among the Mermaids

  xiv

  singing at a pitch just above the crashing waves, and do most

  of your hunting at night.

  And what if you were a mermaid of the arctic waters?

  You’d be a more solitary type, preferring the company of po-

  lar bears and penguins to fellow merrow, singing Bjork-like

  melodies for passing whales to harmonize with.

  Regardless of your latitude or longitude, you’d have long

  hair. This would be more enchanting to your victims, for

  when they would slip into an aquatic slumber, they would

  confuse it with harmles
s tendrils of kelp. And you would

  definitely be svelte—all that swimming and the steady diet

  of omega-rich seafood would keep your figure in top shape.

  And for those of you who fancy yourselves mermen instead

  of mermaids, you would be ripped—the constant flicking of

  your tail would lead to some serious six-pack abs.

  Our fascination with mermaids has a very long history.

  Mermaids are one of the oldest mythological creatures. The

  first known story of a mermaid dates to about 1000 BC,

  when the Assyrian goddess Atargatis, ashamed at having

  killed a mortal man that she loved, tried to conceal herself in

  Introduction: A Maid Upon the Waves

  xv

  a lake. When the waters failed to hide her, she turned herself

  into a creature that was half woman, half fish.

  Mermaids have made appearances in fiction and fairy

  tales, and were especially popular in areas surrounded by

  water, such as Ireland and the islands of the Carib-

  bean Sea. Mermaids waver between being trapped (

  The

  Little Mermaid

  ) and being dangerous (the sirens of

  The Odyssey

  ), but most consistently seem to pos-

  sess a certain superiority to mere mortals. When

  in love, they are vulnerable, so often falling for

  gruf sailors or fishermen. Or they are bewitch-

  ing, enchanting said men to a watery demise.

  Today, mermaids are still as popular as ever.

  Hundreds of fun water-side festivals take place across the

  country. Every year, Coney Island hosts a Mermaid Parade.

  This annual tradition began in 1983, and for the past several

  years has included an after-party for participants and parade

  goers: a Mermaid Ball. For more than fifty years, the Web-

  ster Lions Club in Rochester, New York, has played host to

  the yearly Mermaid Festival. And in 2011, the first annual

  Mer-Con took place at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, com-

  plete with mermaid performers, vendors (selling waterproof

  mermaid tails, adult and child sizes available), and the World

  Mermaid Awards. And lest you think these siren-obsessed

  are all costumed comics, you should read about the real-life

  Among the Mermaids

  xvi

  mermaid, Hannah Fraser. A mermaid-performer by trade,

  this aquatic Australian is far more than a pretty piece of tail:

  she works tirelessly as an eco-activist fighting to keep her

  beloved oceans clean and to save her fellow creatures of the

  deep.

  This collection contains an array of stories from mer-

  maids of a variety of sorts. From funerals to weddings, births

  to deaths, the themes that run from beginning to end in-

  clude love, betrayal, kinship, confusion, and escape. These

  stories are set across the globe—from Ireland to China, and

  from Bermuda to the San Francisco Bay. I hope this collec-

  tion will delight you, enchant you, and reinforce your belief

  in the mermaid legend.

  1

  “And Wendy, there are mermaids.”

  “Mermaids! With tails?”

  “Such long tails.”

  “Oh,” cried Wendy, “to see a mermaid!”

  —J.M. BARRIE,

  PETER PAN

  , 1904

  It’s fairly obvious by the title of this book that I have a fas-

  cination with mermaids. But what delighted me most about

  this Irish story by George A. Birmingham was its setting.

  Many years ago, I went on a soul-seeking journey to the re-

  mote Aran Islands, off the coast of Galway in Ireland. As in

  Birmingham’s story, it is quite true (and especially if you visit

  in the off-season months) that everyone on the island lives

  CHAPTER

  1

  T

  HE

  E

  MERALD

  S

  EA

  Among the Mermaids

  2

  there or has kin living there (and many of the Islanders are

  kin to each other).

  When I read the first page of this story, I was trans-

  ported right back to those craggy limestone cliffs and bitter

  winds. Like all of Ireland, the Aran Islands are a very magical

  place, and it is not at all hard to imagine a mermaid in those

  gray-green waters, her kelpy hair spreading out across the

  crest of a wave, her long arms waving in a friendly, come-

  hither gesture.

  George Birmingham was the pen name of an Irish cler-

  gyman named James Owen Hannay. He wrote more than

  fifty novels and a number of plays, essays, and commentaries

  on rural Irish life as well as politics. To my knowledge, this is

  his only mermaid story. It is from a 1919 collection of stories

  he called

  Our Casualty and Other Stories.

  The Mermaid

  by George A. Birmingham

  We were on our way home from Inishmore, where we had

  spent two days; Peter O’Flaherty among his relatives—for

  everyone on the island was kin to him—I among friends

  who give me a warm welcome when I go to them. The is-

  land lies some seventeen miles from the coast. We started on

  The Emerald Sea

  3

  our homeward sail with a fresh westerly wind. Shortly after

  midday it backed round to the north and grew lighter. At

  five o’clock we were stealing along very gently through calm

  water with our mainsail boom out against the shroud. The

  jib and foresail were drooping in limp folds. An hour later

  the mainsheet was hanging in the water and the boat drifted

  with the tide. Peter, crouching in the fore part of the cockpit,

  hissed through his clenched teeth, which is the way in which

  he whistles for a wind. He glanced all round the horizon,

  searching for signs of a breeze. His eyes rested finally on the

  sun, which lay low among some light, fleecy clouds. He gave

  it as his opinion that when it reached the point of setting it

  “might draw a light air after it from the eastward.” For that it

  appeared we were to wait I shrank from toil with the heavy

  sweeps. So, I am sure did Peter, who is a good man in a boat

  but averse from unnecessary labour. And there was really no

  need to row. The tide was carrying us homeward, and our

  position was pleasant enough. Save for the occasional drag

  of a block against the horse we had achieved unbroken si-

  lence and almost perfect peace.

  Among the Mermaids

  4

  We drifted slowly past Carrigeen Glos, a low, sullen line

  of rocks. A group of cormorants, either gorged with mack-

  erel fry or hopeless of an evening meal, perched together at

  one end of the reef, and stared at the setting sun. A few terns

  swept round and round overhead, soaring or sliding down-

  wards with easy motion. A large seal lay basking on a bare

  rock just above the water’s edge. I pointed it out to Peter, and

  he said it was a pity I had not got my rifle with me. I did not

  agree with him. If I had brought the rifle Peter would have

  insisted on my shooting at the seal. I should certainly not

  have hit it on purpose, for I am averse
from injuring gentle

  creatures; but I might perhaps have killed or wounded it

  by accident, for my shooting is very uncertain. In any case I

  should have broken nature’s peace, and made a horrible com-

  motion. Perhaps the seal heard Peter’s remark or divined his

  feeling of hostility. It flopped across the rock and slid grace-

  fully into the sea. We saw it afterwards swimming near the

  boat, looking at us with its curiously human, tender eyes.

  “A man might mistake it for a mermaid,” I said.

  “He’d have to be a fool altogether that would do the like,”

  said Peter.

  The Emerald Sea

  5

  He was scornful; but the seal’s eyes were human. They

  made me think of mermaids.

  “Them ones,” said Peter, “is entirely different from seals.

  You might see a seal any day in fine weather. They’re plenty.

  But the other ones—But sure you wouldn’t

  care to be hearing about them.”

  “I’ve heard plenty about them,” I said, “but it

  was all poetry and nonsense. You know well

  enough, Peter, that there’s no such thing as

  a mermaid.”

  Peter filled his pipe slowly and lit it. I could see by